http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/ ... mpaign.ap/

Migration to U.S. an issue in Mexican presidential race

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico's presidential campaign is focusing on the millions who leave the country for better-paying jobs in the United States, with candidates promising to create better opportunities at home while railing against unpopular U.S. immigration policies.

Illegal migration should again seize the spotlight Thursday, when the three major presidential hopefuls begin official campaigning after a Christmas break mandated by the country's electoral body.

"The past, the present, the future: Migration is what matters," said Guillermo Alonso, a professor who studies the issue at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.

Though they disagree on almost everything, the top three candidates ahead of the July 2 election have all pledged to bolster the economy while attracting international investment that will make Mexican jobs attractive enough to keep people from heading north.

President Vicente Fox, however, made the same promises before his 2000 election, but migration continued unabated.

Fox campaigned with the promise he would expand the economy by 7 percent a year. But when economic doldrums struck worldwide after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the president was forced to downgrade his domestic growth forecasts.

The current administration also struggled for a migration accord with Washington that would grant legal status to many of the estimated 6 million undocumented Mexicans in the United States.

But no agreement is likely before Fox leaves office December 1.

Mexican politicians have been promising for decades to reduce migration to the United States, but simply creating new jobs isn't enough, political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo said.

"Many illegal [migrants] are now more educated and have opportunities in Mexico but prefer jobs in the United States," he said. "Even with illegal jobs, the pay is higher."

The migration issue will be most visible Thursday when presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo holds a rally in Izucar de Matamoros, referred to by some as a ghost town because much of its population has left for the United States.

Madrazo, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party controlled Mexico's presidency from its founding in 1929 until losing to Fox, said he's serious about keeping would-be migrants from leaving Mexico in a way the current administration -- and seven decades of governments controlled by his party -- were not.

For months, the race's front-runner has been Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who resigned as Mexico City's mayor to run for president with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

His lead has diminished in recent months, however.

Lopez Obrador is opening his campaign in Metlatonoc, a southern town with the lowest standard of living in Mexico as measured by a 2004 U.N. report.

Lopez Obrador said it pains him to see Mexicans risk their lives sneaking across the U.S. border. He said economic reform is not about ideology but necessity.

Adding fuel to the electoral fire is a proposal passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would build 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) of additional border fences in California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The bill also would make illegal entry a felony and enlist military and local police to help stop undocumented migrants.

The measure, which the Senate may take up next month, has been bitterly condemned in Mexico.

"It has intensified the issue, and anti-American sentiment is growing," Crespo said of the proposal. "A wall is very symbolic and sends a message."

Felipe Calderon of Fox's National Action Party has said that "instead of labor going to where the capital is, we will make it so investment comes here to where our people are."

That's good news to Samuel Chavez, a Mexico City engineer who has two uncles and four cousins living illegally in California.

"Fox said the right things, but we need a candidate who can bring home a migration agreement," he said. "Mexico needs results, not good intentions."

Crespo and Alonso said Mexican limits on foreign investment in the oil industry and other key sectors have hindered a cash infusion from abroad that might spur true economic reform.

"There are so many political and legal factors that impede Mexico's economy from functioning," Alonso said. "It seems none of [the candidates] really plan to apply a concrete formula and methodology that can open the economy up to investment."